Sight 2: Unhappy Sightholders

The second Sight of the year was dominated by the previously announced price hike from the DTC. While the promise was for a less then two percent hike on average, the “rebalancing” was not shared equally among Sightholders.

Change in the prices of DTC boxes ranged wildly from 5 percent less to 13 percent more, with real prices affected by variations in box assortments.

The sentiment among Sightholders was not positive in general, but Indian Sightholders, in particular, were reportedly very disappointed. According to one source, there were two reasons for their displeasure: first, the announcement last week of a price “rebalancing” gave hope to Sightholders that the DTC would lower prices on the goods available for purchase, but Indian Sightholders found that the price decrease did not necessarily relate to their supply.

This disappointment was deepened by the real price hike of their goods - 3-4 percent on average – double the announced increase. These Sightholders say that it will be difficult for them to pass on the full price rise to their clients, further hurting their margins.

At a time when ‘outside’ rough costs less then DTC goods, even before the one percent broker fee and Value Added Services (VAS), some say the timing of the price increase was not wise.

Estimates about the size of the Sight range from $630 to $700 million.